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.""Your parents, who had never met, were dead when you were conceived?""Yeah.""Doesn't that bother you?""Mr.Maynard, if we're going to work together, can we just stick to scientificfacts, and not go jaunting off through history and psychology?"Maynard exhaled what might have been a laugh."You hold your own."Tinker wasn't sure what he meant by that.Sick of the whole inquisition, sheforced the conversation off onto another track."So what the hell do you wantme to do?""Someone smuggled a large shipment of illegal goods in during Shutdown.Luckyfor us, though, they were involved in a multiple-vehicle accident on theVeterans Bridge.Their vehicle was disabled, and they panicked in spectacularfashion, which makes us worried about what all they might have brought intoPittsburgh.""You didn't catch them?""No," Maynard said."They unloaded their truck, sorted through the shipment,and carried away what they deemed most important.The driver had been pinnedby the accident; they shot him so we couldn't question him.""Ouch." That earned her a dark look from Maynard."So far it doesn't soundlike a panic.""Well, throw in a carjacking, assault on the other accident victims, pickingup and throwing aVolkswagen Beetle over the side of the bridge in a fit of rage, engaging in agunfight with police, and trying to blow up with C-4 what they couldn't carryPage 40 ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlaway, and you start to get the idea."Tinker gasped.Nathan!"Were any of the police hurt?"Maynard looked surprised at the question."Luckily, no.Not for the want oftrying, though.""And how do I fit in? I was in McKees Rocks fighting wargs when that accidenthappened.""How do you know when it happened?""My friend Nathan Czernowski is a cop.He was with me at the scrap yard whenthe call came in.I'm assuming that there was only one multiple-vehicle pileupand fistfight on the VeteransBridge.""Yes." Maynard relaxed slightly, apparently accepting her alibi."Well, you'llbe interested to know that the description of the smugglers match that of yourattackers at the Rim."Tinker swore."Smuggle in contraband one night, attack Windwolf the next?""Very busy people," Maynard said."It denotes a large organization, of whichthese men are merely disposable muscle.So far, EIA has been able to keep suchcrime rings out of Pittsburgh.Iwant to pull this one up by its roots.""Sounds like a plan.What does this have to do with me?""Some of the load wasn't contraband, just extremely expensive high-tech parts.The question is, what could they be used to make?""Oh, I see."* * *The impounded goods had been unloaded in a warehouse in the Strip District.Basically just one low room a block long, the place fairly crawled with armedEIA.While security for the building ran high, lighting and climate controlleft much to be desired.Natural light came in from windows lining an upperwalkway.Work lamps tacked to support columns provided additional light,plugged into jury-rigged electrical boxes on newly strung Romex line.Because of the virgin forests occupying most of the western continent, Elfhomeusually ran several degrees cooler than Earth.Since Pittsburgh suffered fromhigh humidity, the lower temperatures were a blessing.The rain storms ofShutdown and Startup over, a rare summer heat, however, had moved in.Thewarehouse's only nod toward climate control was ceiling fans, cloaked in theshadows high overhead, that barely moved the ovenlike heat of the building.Tinker found herself wishing for shorts and a midriff shirt.In Maynard'scompany, she didn't even feel like unbuttoning her shirt.Sweat trickled downher back as she followed Maynard through trestle tables set up and loaded withsmuggled goods.What she discovered made her forget the heat.There were digital boards, stripping kits, and connector kits.Forfiber-optics work, they had a full run of splice trays, hot-melt connectorsystems, and a curing oven.She found a spool of gold wire.Fault finders,microscanners, and status activity monitors.There were tech kits that set hermouth drooling.Punch boxes.Wire crimp tools.Small precision mirrors.Therewere even new digital markers that laid out a metal-based ink held in abuckyball matrix.Tinker poked through the stuff, wishing she could take thelot back to her place.Lain had told her tales about the world beyond the Rimwhere such stuff was plentiful.Much as Tinker loved Pittsburgh, she had toadmit that there was a true shortage of goods.Maynard interrupted her trolling to hand her a length of cable with a box atthe end."Do you know what this is?"Tinker took it.She turned it in her hands, studying it.The box was moldedplastic with two power ports
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